Thursday, July 16, 2009

Microsoft has revealed some of the changes that will be made to SharePoint in the 2010 release. After looking at the "sneak peek" materials posted on the company's SharePoint site, it's clear Microsoft is saving the best for its October conference, and simply following that old show-biz tradition of "leave 'em wanting more!" Several of the changes were alluded to by Microsoft's director of SharePoint Tom Rizzo in his keynote at SPTechCon in Boston in late June: the renaming of Groove to SharePoint Workspaces, the fact that only 64-bit Windows Server (2008) and SQL Server (2005 or 2008) will be supported going forward. Among the new tidbits are the renaming of the Business Data Catalog as Business Data Services, and allowing for greater connectivity with other business-type data repositories, such as Office; and the use of an Office-like ribbon interface and the ability to use Office themes in SharePoint. (At January's SPTechCon in Burlingame, Calif., Rizzo alluded to the ribbon experience being available in SharePoint and Office Web access companions).Yet nothing has been shown yet that addresses some issues we've heard about -- SharePoint out-of-the-box isn't great for data backup and recovery, or for dynamic site planning -- so we'll have to wait until more information comes out in October to see what other major feature enhancements have been made.-- David

Monday, July 6, 2009

ShareSquared, a Microsoft SharePoint consulting firm, today announced it has completed the Microsoft Certified Master program for Office SharePoint Server, becoming the first U.S.-based company to do so. Maurice Prather, in photo at right, who spoke at SPTechCon in Boston in late June, is the company's first architect to complete the program, and one of the first SharePoint professionals in the world to attain that level of certification. The certification, according to ShareSquared managing director David Kruglow, "aligns with our guarantee to our clients that ShareSquared consultants have the highest degree of knowledge and certification on Microsoft technologies."Per Farny, of Microsoft Learning, added, "Customers who engage with a Microsoft Certified Master know, without a doubt, that they are getting the most highly experienced and validated individual available on a particular Microsoft product."